Texas Rangers Blog

So long, C.J. Wilson? Jon Daniels: Rangers ‘probably will go with the 5 guys we have’

In more ways than one, Jon Daniels got what he wanted on Monday. The Rangers GM was able to sign a proven closer in Joe Nathan and move a gifted young arm into the starting rotation.

Now, Nathan becomes the Rangers’ closer and 2010 Rookie of the Year Neftali Feliz can join Derek Holland, Colby Lewis, Matt Harrison and either Alexei Ogando or Scott Feldman as the five starters.

The acquisition also puts the Rangers in a position where they aren’t forced to re-sign C.J. Wilson.

However, Daniels said Tuesday that the team’s interest in Wilson isn’t “too dissimilar” from where it was before they added Nathan.

“We’ve always maintained privately to C.J. and publicly that we would like to have him back,” Daniels said on “The Ben & Skin Show” on KESN-FM. “But we also understand that he’s in a great spot. And he’s one of the few guys in the market that can kind of pitch himself as an upper rotation starter, so he’s going to get paid accordingly.

“It may be a deal where he comes back and says, ‘I want to be in Texas’ and it makes sense and we’re able to work something out, and it may not. What we just didn’t want to have happen is be in a situation where we either had to react and do something we weren’t comfortable with, with C.J. or with somebody else, or we were put in a spot where if C.J. signed elsewhere we were scrambling and didn’t like our options.

“Now we’re in a spot where we can go, and we probably will go, with the five guys we have. But we’re also open to improving. If that means C.J. or Mark Buehrle or somebody else of that nature or trade, we’re going to explore all of those things. But we don’t have to necessarily do one of those, where as without making this move, there might have been a little bit more pressure, and I think it’s better to make decisions without that.”